


Fire Escape

by unprofessionalbard



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-02
Updated: 2018-02-02
Packaged: 2019-03-12 20:02:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13554573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unprofessionalbard/pseuds/unprofessionalbard
Summary: It's one am on a thursday and Taako just wants like five minutes of peace and quiet, which isn't easy when your roommate is having a noise complaint battle with your neighbour, your RA has it out for you, and your only quiet spot is technically against the rules.Taako lies about a smoke bomb. Kravitz points out some constellations.





	Fire Escape

**Author's Note:**

> written for day five of twinsweek (taako ship).

Taako is not supposed to be on the roof. No one is supposed to be the on the roof, but what did they expect, they were gonna put a fire escape that goes up to the roof and not have students go up it? 

Technically, the doors to the fire escape are alarmed, but a few lucky people had windows just over it, and if you weren’t a coward and wanted fresh air you could just hop out the window onto the fire escape and hit the roof. Which Taako does. A lot. 

Look, Magnus is a decent roommate. They’re even friends, not that he’d ever say that to Magnus’s face (Magnus, infuriatingly, already seems to know). But sometimes, Taako just needs space, and a space where their friends don’t see fit to come and go whenever. As long as there’s no big ass loud groups up here or the odd drunk dumbass that he has to escort back to their floor before they do some dumb shit on the roof, it’s golden. But still not allowed. 

So God knows why he’s not paying enough attention to catch someone else climbing the fire escape until they’re on the roof and clearing their throat behind him. Taako scrambles to his feet at the noise, spinning around to face whoever it is. 

_Please don’t be Jenkins, please don’t be Jenkins—_

It is not Jenkins. Instead, it’s probably the most handsome man Taako has ever seen in his fucking life. He tries not to stare, he really does, but how is he supposed to not stare when this dude has a jawline like that?

“You’re not supposed to be up here.”

“That makes two of us,” quips Taako, and the mystery man raises his eyebrows and then laughs. 

“I’m an RA. Fortunately for you, I don’t think I’m your RA, but I’m up here to check for people like you.” 

Oh shit. Okay. Taako’s charming smile falls flat, and he tries to assess possible escape routes (the fire escape, which is blocked by Mr. Great Bone Structure, and the door, which he knows is alarmed from the inside and probably locked from the outside), only to come up empty. 

Maybe he can charm his way out of this one? 

“Honest mistake.”

“The doors have alarms.”

“Didn’t realize I wasn’t supposed to climb up the fire escape.”

“The doors to the fire escape are locked too. You’d have to climb out a window.”

“Sure did.”

The guy crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow. “You climbed out a window and snuck up the fire escape, where people have gotten busted for smoking before, and which has been the subject of several meetings, and didn’t realize you were breaking any rules?”

Taako opens his mouth to say he’s never actually attended his floor’s meetings (and when he does, he’s certainly not paying attention) before realizing that’s against the rules too. Shit. He rubs his temple, and then changes the subject. 

“Listen, my man— uh, what’s your name?”

“...Kravitz.” This conversation doesn’t seem to be going the direction Kravitz expected, which is good for Taako. Keep ‘em guessing. 

He isn’t totally sure it’s a good idea to give his name out to Kravitz, seeing as he’s just admitted to being an RA and could definitely rat him out to Jenkins if he wanted. But hey, he’s been nice so far, and Taako’s an expert at pushing his luck. 

“Taako. Nice to meet you. Listen—”

Kravitz’s expression drops instantly. “ _You’re_ Taako!” he says (almost accusingly, as though Taako had done something to Kravitz himself, even though they’ve never met before), and Taako isn’t sure whether to feel defensive or proud. 

“Mm-hm. Should I start running or are you leading into a compliment?”

“You—” Kravitz waves his arms and then gestures somewhat angrily, but mostly disbelievingly at Taako himself. “You and your roommate sent off that smoke bomb on the seventh floor! _My_ floor!”

“You can’t prove that was us.” He feels a little bad Kravitz had to deal with that, but Lydia and Edward had it coming.

“And!” continues Kravitz, suddenly way more vindicated than Taako is okay with. Kravitz might even say something that Taako can get in real trouble for. “And! What about the time you broke the elevator?”

“It broke with me inside it—! I’m a victim here. I can’t even use elevators anymore. Have some sympathy.” Was it partly Merle’s, Magnus’s, and his fault? Maybe. It wasn't fun, though. 

“Smoking in your dorm room?” 

“I don’t smoke.” This is a bold faced lie and he’s sure Kravitz knows it, but Kravitz isn’t his damn RA and he can’t prove any of this. Besides, that’s mostly not him. "Cigarettes, anyway," he mutters after a second, which _is_ true. Kravitz gives a derisive snort in response, but switches tacks anyway. 

“What about all the noise violations?”

“Those ones are true. But to be fair, it’s Magnus causing shit with Marvie so much that he has it out for us, also Jenkins is ready to write me up the second I blink the wrong way. You try living on the fifth floor, see how you like it.” 

Kravitz puts his hands on his hips and glares at Taako. “I should write you up for being on the roof.”

“But you won’t because I’m so charming and handsome?”

Whatever Kravitz was expecting, it wasn’t that. He falters for a second, and then shakes his head. “No— that’s not— I mean— It’s not that you’re not— no!” 

Taako laughs, and sits himself back down, crossing his legs and looking up at Kravitz. “Thank you. You’re not so bad yourself.”

“That wasn’t—” Kravitz huffs, and crosses his arms, shifting his weight around. He’s not doing a very good job at hiding how flustered he is, Taako notes with satisfaction. “Why are you up here?”

Taako sighs, looking away from Kravitz and out at the campus. “I’m not allowed to have a moment’s peace, huh? A man can’t catch a break even for a minute, huh?”

Kravitz doesn’t say anything. The silences yawns, and Taako slowly becomes aware that Kravitz is waiting for another answer.

“Look, Kravitz. You’re cute, but you’re not cute enough for me to get into my fucking feelings with a stranger at one am on my dorm building’s roof. I’m not up here to smoke, I haven’t been drinking, I’m not anywhere close to the edge. Can you just turn a blind eye this one time?” It’s definitely going to be more than one time, but Kravitz doesn’t need to know that. 

“Uh, can I sit down?” 

Taako looks up at Kravitz again with narrowed eyes, before offering a tentative shrug. So Kravitz settles himself in next to Taako, looking out over the city too. He's quiet for a long moment, which sets Taako on edge a little, but he's going to bet that if Kravitz was going to get him into hot water, he wouldn't be sitting down right now. 

“I’m not going to write you up because I used to come up here to practice violin and I don’t think it’s fair to write somebody up for something I do.”

Privately, Taako thinks that if he were an RA (and like, a stuck up kind of RA who gives a shit, not the kind he’d actually be, which is the cool kind where you pretend not to notice the people definitely stocking up for what is clearly going to be a party), he wouldn’t hesitate to write people up even if it did make him a hypocrite. However, he’s currently getting off scot free, so he doesn’t say that. 

Instead, he says, “Violin huh. Can you play _Matchmaker_?”

“Hmm? Oh, I see. I don’t know any fiddle pieces, unfortunately, and never learned to play anything from a soundtrack.” Kravitz does smile at the joke, which is a win in Taako’s book. “Also— and I _will_ write you up if you repeat this anywhere— I cannot stand your RA and I’m not about to go tell him what you’re doing.” 

Taako’s whips his head around, grin about to split his face in two. “Right? He fuckin’ sucks and he thinks he’s so damn smart for no reason. Do you know what his GPA is? He keeps bragging about it but won’t put his money where his fuckin’ mouth is.” 

Kravitz laughs, and shakes his head. Taako’s grin fades, and he turns his gaze back up to the skyline. There’s too much light pollution to really see the stars, and the lights of the city are pretty, but a poor substitute. 

“You aren’t supposed to be up here, are you?” he says finally, and Kravitz makes a noise of vague confusion. Taako doesn’t look at him while he talks. “I mean, you’re an RA for sure. But quiet hours started at eleven. That’s when the roof gets checked for students. At one am on a thursday? You’re not doing rounds to make sure everyone’s in bed. RA doesn’t mean you do night patrol. In fact, you’re supposed to be in your dorm room just like everybody else. You couldn’t bust me if you wanted to without admitting you were breaking the rules too. Am I right?” 

Kravitz curses under his breath, and Taako laughs. 

“Don’t worry. _I’m_ not an RA,” he says, and Kravitz groans, but Taako can see him struggling to hide a smile out of the corner of his eyes. There’s another few minutes of silence, and then Taako speaks up again. He doesn’t know what impulse drives him to do that. Maybe Kravitz is cute enough to get into his feelings at one am. “I used to live outside the city. Well, travel outside the city I guess.” He doesn’t elaborate on that; Kravitz may be cute enough to get this out of him, but he’s not about to lay out his whole childhood. “I don’t really miss it but I do miss the stars. This isn’t much but it’s something.” 

He’s been coming up here a lot since Lup left town. She’ll be back over winter break, obviously, but he still misses her. 

Kravitz doesn’t say anything for a moment, then he clears his throat. “Uh. Thank you, for, uhm, telling me—” 

Taako waves his hand and gives a dismissive laugh. “Oh my god, please do not act like I just poured my heart out here. I said I liked stars.” 

“Fair,” says Kravitz, although he tilts his head skyward. “You can still see Orion’s belt, if you squint.” 

“Mhm.” This… is weirdly nice, now. Taako looks skyward too, and is disappointed (as always) by the lack of visible stars compared to the shine of the city lights. “We— I used to make up constellations. Nobody told me any as a kid so we— I just made my own up.” 

Kravitz, thankfully, doesn’t comment on the ‘we’. “Like what?” 

Taako squints at the sky, trying to find anything familiar. “Too bright out. Can’t see any of them. They were dumb dorky kid shit anyway.” 

“Sounds nice,” says Kravitz, and Taako wants to curse under his breath because it’s weird how sincere this conversation has turned. If anyone had said that shit to him, he would’ve made fun of them instantly. One time (okay, several times) Magnus cried watching a disney movie and Taako didn’t let that go for weeks. Why is Kravitz being so nice? 

And why is Taako still fucking talking? 

“Was what it was. Are we done with this? Can I go back to trying to get your number?” 

Kravitz laughs. “You can stop hitting on me, I said I wasn’t going to write you up.” 

“What, I lost my vision after you said you weren’t gonna be a snitch?” Taako turns to look at him, indignance written all over his face. “A man’s not allowed to notice good looks without there being an ulterior motive? Listen, Krav, I don’t mind that you’re not interested but can you open with that instead of implying I’m trying to flirt my way out of trouble?” 

Kravitz opens and closes his mouth a couple times, and then pulls his phone out of his pocket, punching in a few things before turning it towards Taako. It’s open to a new contact page. Taako stares at it for a long, long moment, and just before Kravitz is about to pull it away, he manages to snap out of it and grab the phone to punch his number in. 

"Right,” says Kravitz, when Taako hands him his phone back. “Uh, I’m going to go to bed now, and we should both pretend we weren’t up here.” 

“Text me,” says Taako, because he’s not about to get off the roof just yet. 

Kravitz hesitates for a moment before blurting out, “We should do this again. Not on the roof though just like— uh, for coffee or something.” He pauses for a second, and then rushes through the next sentence; his tone seems to shift from nervous to exasperated. “Also can you please try to break the rules a little less. I’m definitely not supposed to be doing exceptions.” 

Taako laughs. “I’ll try to break the rules a normal amount, and you worry about your own floor. Like how Lydia and Edward have at least five candles each.” 

“They— of course they do.” Kravitz sighs, and heads back down the fire escape. “Goodnight Taako.” 

Taako gives a lazy wave in response, and then lays down on the roof, looking up at the sparse stars. 

He _can_ see Orion’s belt, if he squints. 

**Author's Note:**

> no proofreading we die and submit things late like men. also i don't know anything about what living on campus is like. i'm so sorry. i just liked the concept. i did learn that you aren't allowed to have coffee machines in dorm rooms though, so my heart goes out to every poor soul in a dorm. 
> 
> taako vapes and merle is a grad student who keeps smoking weed in their room and that is what i meant by 'smoking' also you can absolutely pry that stupid ass headcanon from my cold dead hands.
> 
> find me on tumblr @crewmanjeeter!


End file.
